HR. KUNO FISCHER ON LORD BACON. * Hun, for a marvel,
is a philosophical work from the pen of a German that might be read with pleasure by the general intel- lectual public of England. Save and except the words " objective" and " subjective," which in spite of Mr. Ruskin's protest we must regard as absolutely necessary in the modern metaphysics, Dr. Kuno Fischer eschews all those technicalities which stand as so many ehevaux de frize between Cis-and-Tranarhenane thinkers, and moreover writes in a fluent easy style, worthy of a philosopher of Edinburgh or of Paris. Indeed, so far from increasing the difficulties of his subject by his treatment—after the most approved fashion of German teachers—he has produced a oompendium of the Baconian system, admirably well suited for those delicate natures who would Irink from grappling with the "De Aug- mentis " and the " Novum Organon in their orginal Latin. His book—mirabile diotu!—is actually a Bacon made easy. However, the reproduction ofthe Baconian thought occupies but a limited portion of Dr. Fischer's very moderate volume. In a tone mildly panegyric, he examines the character intellectual and moral of his hero,--defending him with equal zeal against his friends and his enemies. With the celebrated French Catholic Jean Le Maistre, who in scurrilous terms proclaimed Bacon an Atheist,—thus, by the way, agreeing with numerous French free- thinkers, who used the term as a eompliment,—he falls in a down- right passion ; and, on the other hand, far from being de • hted with the Bacon-worship displayed in Mr. Macaulay's b essay, he regards it as even more detrimental to the reputation of the scientific Lord Chancellor. Mr. Macaulay, it will be recol- lected, makes his dissertation a vehicle for extolling philosophy of the practically useful kind above theoretical speculation, and places Bacon on a lofty pedestal as the representative of the former. This slighting treatment of speculators, Dr. Fischer—who is a Ger- man after all—cannot bear. Bacon was an empirist, he of course admits, and had those defects which always cleave to empiricism in the judgment of every truly Teutonic mind : but then, he did love science for its own sake, like any Plato or Socrates ; and it is positively frightful to make him an utilitarian of the nineteenth century. Bacon, with all his faults, intended to enlarge the mental
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vision of man into the comprehension of an universe, and thus found a vast intellectual empire ; but the modern utilitarian would pin humanity down to the merest earthy wants of the day. In epirammatic fencing Dr. Fischer is better skilled than the gene- rality of his countrymen. Mr. Macaulay has declared the in- feriority of Seneca to a shoemaker, on the ground that the shoes of the latter protect millions from the wet, while it is exceedinglyy doubtful whether the treatise of the former " De Ira" over canned a single individual to keep his temper. Dr. Fischer sticks to the shoemaker's last, prepared. by Mr. Macaulay. " This practical U. e. utilitarian] philosophy," he exclaims, "bears the same re- lation to the human mind that a tight shoe bears to the foot—it pinches ; and a pinching shoe is but a sorry protection against the wet, after all."
The moral character of Bacon necessarily receives its share of consideration ; and while engaged on this topic, Dr. Fischer re- fuses to share in the surprise commonly awakened by that mix- ture of wisdom and baseness which has popularly stamped Francis of Verulam as
"The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind."
He does not palliate or attempt to disprove the acts of turpitude which sully Bacon's reputation ; but he fords them very, natural —altogether consistent with the character of his philosophy. Bacon's system lacks ideality ; scorns the superterrestrial ; ho- nourably exiles religion from the whole region of human intellect, on the plausible plea that he is thus preserving it pure and =- contaminated ; aims at the mastery of man over the material world as its grand purpose ; and altogether inculcates a spirit of caution and shrewdness in the attainment of that desirable end. Now this sort of character is the very man for a labo- ratory, where there is no temptation to lead him from the right path ; for the greater amount of cunning he employs in worming out Nature's secrets, the greater the benefit he will confer on man- kind. But put the same man in the middle of practical life— let his own individual advancement rather than the good of humanity be the goal of his actions—and it will probably be soon found out that he has all the qualifications for a very pretty rascal." Mr. Macaulay's remark, that Bacon could adopt a straightforward course with respect to the old Schoolmen, be- cause Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus had no bribes of honour or emolument to offer, is " not ill said," (nicht saki gesagt,) in the opinion of Dr. Fischer.
It will be seen that the second title of the book is "Realistic Philosophy and its Age." Consistently with this title, Dr. Fischer examines the antecedents and consequences of Baconism ; and the intellectual pedigree, which he brings down from Bacon to David Hume, displays more acuteness than any other portion of his. work. Indeed, we do not know where so clear a knowledge of the course of English philosophy could so well be picked up in a hurry by a student anxious for " cram" and economical in the use of the midnight oil. The " Leviathan" of Thomas Hobbes is an applica- tion of the Baconian. system to morals and politics; and the free-thinking of whieh the Malmesbury philosopher was the sort of patriarch, is but a result of the false position into which Lord Bacon had put religion, by declaring it contradictory to reason, and then holding up his hands, with the pious • Franz Baco von Ferulant. Die Realphilosophie and ihr Zeitalter. Yon Kuno Ascher. Leipzig, Brockhaus; London, Williams and Norgate. ejaculation of Tertullian, " Credo, quiz impossibile est." Not- withstanding a few claptrap sentences, that are often quoted with gusto in proof of Bacon's orthodoxy, there is no doubt that he was for locking up all theological faith in a respect- able state church, only to be opened on Sundays and saints' days ; and the man who went a little further was for walling up the door altogether. The exact representative of Baconism, such as Bacon himself would have had it, is the scientific Dean so admira- bly depioted in Mr. Kingsley's "Alton Locke" • • and it will be remembered, that while he was most orthodox when theology was the subject of discourse, his zoological pamphlet looked like sheer Atheism in the eyes of the unsophisticated tailor. Locke is the natural historian of the human understanding; and in the process of his reasoning he makes frequent use of the "negative in- stances" of Bacon. He formulizes the doctrine that experience is the only source of science ; but leaves the external world en- dowed with certain primary attributes, that are something be- yond sensuous impressions. These are overthrown by Berke- ley, who is not less but more of a sensualist than Locke, and whose system is most improperly termed " idealism," as Dr. Fischer very correctly remarks - though he might have added, that for a real system of idealism a better promedentic could not be found than the dialogues of Hylus and Philonous. Hume completes the destruction of empirical certainty by deny- ing the necessary connexion of cause and effect ; and this is the summit of the English pyramid on which Dr. Fischer, in a very short chapter, places the statue of Immanuel Kant. The tie that connects the metaphysical thought of England with that of Ger- many is Caledonian ; for David Hume was a Scot, and Kant came of Scottish parents. That the sister island might not be without a link in the philosophical chain, Providence decreed that Berke- ley should be an Irishman.
The Continental thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who can be brought into connexion with Bacon also come in for a share of attention ; Pierre Bayle, in particular, is examined at considerable length. But we have stated enough to indicate what Dr. Fischer has done, and how he has done it.
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